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Posted by baalke on September 7, 2007, 5:04 pm
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PHOENIX MARS LANDER CAMERA SENDS FIRST IMAGE BACK TO EARTH
(Forwarded from Sara Hammond, Phoenix Mission, UA, 520-626-1974)
-- September 7, 2007
A camera flying aboard The University of Arizona-led Phoenix Mars
Lander
took its first picture during cruise and sent it back to Earth on
Sept. 6.
The lander's Robotic Arm Camera took the photo looking into the
Robotic
Arm's scoop. Both instruments are encased in a protective biobarrier
to
ensure no Earth organisms are carried to Mars.
"It is a nice, clean picture with good sharp focus. One of these days
it
will be filled with Martian dirt," said Peter Smith, Phoenix principal
investigator at the UA. "We have special pride in this, as it is a UA-
German
product."
The Robotic Arm Camera took an image of the Robotic Arm scoop using
its red
LED (Light-Emitting Diode) lamp. Human eyes see this image only in
shades of
gray, so the picture has been enhanced in false color to better
represent
what the camera sees. The image is online at the Phoenix Mars Lander
Website, http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu, as well as the UA News
Website,
http://uanews.org.
Images from the Robotic Arm Camera, one of five imaging instruments on
the
lander, will be the only pictures taken and returned to Earth until
Phoenix
approaches and lands on Mars on May 25, 2008. Additional images will
be
taken by the Robotic Arm Camera later in the cruise stage.
The Robotic Arm Camera check was one of a series of instrument tests
being
completed as Phoenix cruises toward the red planet. Phoenix was about
57
million miles from Earth when the image was sent back. It is traveling
at
76,000 miles per hour in relation to the sun.
On Mars, the Robotic Arm will dig trenches, scoop up soil and water-
ice
samples and deliver them to several instruments on the lander=B9s deck
for
chemical and geological analysis.
The Robotic Arm Camera, built by the UA and Max Planck Institute, is
attached to the Robotic Arm just above the scoop. It will provide
close-up,
full-color images of the Martian surface, prospective soil and water-
ice
samples, samples collected in the scoop before delivery to the
lander=B9s
science deck, and of the floor and side walls of the trenches.
Phoenix=B9s
Robotic Arm was provided by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the
arm=B9s
scoop was manufactured by Honeybee Robotics of New York.
Phoenix launched from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla., on Aug.
4=2E It
will fly to a site farther north than any previous Mars landing.
The solar-powered lander will robotically dig to underground ice and
will
run laboratory tests assessing whether the site could have ever been
hospitable to microbial life. The instruments will also look for clues
about
the history of the water in the ice. They will monitor arctic weather
as
northern Mars' summer progresses toward fall, until solar energy fades
and
the mission ends.
The Phoenix mission is led by Peter Smith of The University of
Arizona,
Tucson, with project management at NASA=B9s Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
Pasadena, Calif., and development partnership at Lockheed Martin,
Denver.
International contributions are provided by the Canadian Space Agency;
the
University of Neuchatel, Switzerland; the universities of Copenhagen
and
Aarhus, Denmark; the Max Planck Institute, Germany; and the Finnish
Meteorological Institute.
-------------------------------------------
Phoenix Mission Lander Website -
http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu
Media Contact Info
Sara Hammond 520-626-1974 shammond@lpl.arizona.edu
----------------------------------------------------
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